BluePay Overview
Owned By First Data
BluePay, sometimes misspelled as “Blue Pay,” is a mid-size credit card processor and merchant account provider headquartered in Naperville, Illinois. First Data acquired the company in December 2017. BluePay owns a handful of subsidiaries, including Security Card Services and VersaPay.
BluePay Headquarters and Ownership
BluePay is a registered ISO/MSP with Wells Fargo, N.A., Concord, California and BluePay Canada ULC, is a Registered ISO/MSP of Peoples Trust Company, Vancouver, Canada. Founded in 2002, the company has offices in Chicago, New York, Maryland, and Ontario but lists its corporate headquarters as 184 Shuman Blvd #350, Naperville, Illinois 60563. Bala Janakiraman is listed as the CEO of BluePay.
BluePay Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: BluePay offers a three-year contract with an early termination fee of $295.
- Complaints & Service: BluePay has received more than 25 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: BluePay has an “F” rating and has received 11 complaints and 8 reviews in the past 3 years. The company has also had its accreditation revoked by the Better Business Bureau.
- Sales & Marketing: BluePay appears to hire independent sales representatives and has received a low-to-moderate number of complaints about its sales team.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With BluePay
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Lowest Complaint Merchant Accounts
Truth In Marketing & Advertising
Key Points
| Employs Independent Resellers | Yes |
| Advertises Deceptive Rates | Yes |
| Discloses All Important Terms | No |
Multi-Faceted Sales Approach
BluePay appears to rely heavily on independent sales agents, telemarketing, partnerships, online marketing, and an inside sales staff to market its services. Since BluePay keeps the majority of its sales staff in-house, it helps the company maintain a higher level of quality control of the sales process. However, based on merchant feedback, BluePay’s sales team appears to be falling a little short in always openly revealing all of the company’s costs and terms. There are numerous merchant complaints on this site and elsewhere that mention nondisclosure of rates and fees by the company’s agents. If you are concerned that BluePay is overcharging you, we advise seeking a third-party statement audit to eliminate hidden fees.
Teaser Rate Quote
BluePay currently promotes rates “as low as 0.95%” on its website. This rate could set unrealistic expectations for credit card processing costs because merchants will likely only see a small fraction of their transactions process at such a low discount rate. Additionally, it’s unlikely that most merchants will actually get the rates that BluePay displays on its website as evidenced by a previously posted disclaimer that said the company’s rates are really “based on volume, average ticket and the types of credit card your customers pay with.”
Misleading Advertising
We have also located BluePay advertisements elsewhere on the internet (shown on the left) that advertise rates “as low as 0.05%.” These rates are clearly “teaser” rates and are not an accurate reflection of the average cost per transaction for most BluePay merchants. As with the examples on the company’s website, these quotes may give merchants an unrealistic expectation of the rates they will pay and are therefore deceptive in our view.
Response from BluePay
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Our Opinion of BluePay
Room for Improvement
Overall, BluePay performs at an average level and has a moderate complaint level for its size and time in business. The company has a few areas to improve upon, with the main areas of concern being how BluePay quotes rates and fees on its website and its three-year contract with an auto-renewal clause. Merchants are advised to thoroughly read and understand the merchant account agreement before signing as a precaution against unwelcome surprises. Merchants can be sure to secure the best overall deal by comparing BluePay’s offerings to those of top-rated merchant services providers.
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About Phillip Parker
Thank you for reading my review. I hope that it has helped you with your research.
Why I'm Qualified to Write About Credit Card Processing and Merchant Account Services
I'm a former credit card processing sales director who left the industry because I didn't like how it takes advantage of small business owners. It feeds like a leech on businesses and thrives by imposing fees that are nearly impossible to comprehend. Seeing a need for change, I left and built this website help business owners better understand the industry, research merchant services providers, and get refunds of excessive merchant account fees. My experience of working "behind the curtain" in the industry, and using that knowledge for good, has resulted in millions of dollars returned to hard-working small business owners as well as enterprise-level companies.
From the time that I starting working in the merchant services industry to when I left to create this website, I've been on the pulse of payments for nearly 15 years. It didn't seem fair to keep this "insider" knowledge to myself. To lift the fog, I've reviewed hundreds of companies, read thousands of user reviews, and learned the pricing tricks of every provider. If you have questions about credit card processing, you can find the answers on this website.
Phillip Parker
Choose Clearent or another card processor over bluepay/cardconnect. The customer service is very poor, hard to get a hold of and they will continue to charging a service fee even after you are no longer a client. Switched to Clearent and will not look back, super friendly, better rates, and overall better doing business with them.
Bluepay is by far the worst merchant payment processing we have used in 25 years of being in business. They are terrible for dispute resolutions and provide the merchant not details or instructions on a rebuttal process. Phone calls to the phone numbers provided online are fruitless. No one who answers the phone will even confirm they are a representative of Bluepay. You basically get a run around call that will forward you to different phone numbers and every answer is different, but the bottom line is you will not get a clear answer. If a customer disputes a charge, you will loose automatically because you arent even afforded and address or email in where to send the documentation to rebutte the dispute. Customer service is non existent and the rates are entirely too high. Would not recommend Bluepay at all. You would have a much better chance of running a business on the barter system of the 18-19th century than dealing with their company.
Bluepay is by far the worst merchant payment processing we have used in 25 years of being in business. They are terrible for dispute resolutions and provide the merchant not details or instructions on a rebuttal process. Phone calls to the phone numbers provided online are fruitless. No one who answers the phone will even confirm they are a representative of Bluepay. You basically get a run around call that will forward you to different phone numbers and every answer is different, but the bottom line is you will not get a clear answer. If a customer disputes a charge, you will loose automatically because you arent even afforded and address or email in where to send the documentation to rebutte the dispute. Customer service is non existent and the rates are entirely too high. Would not recommend Bluepay at all. You would have a much better chance of running a business on the barter system of the 18-19th century than dealing with their company.
This company is a SCAM. Wasted my time, dealt with them for a week as they disguised as my potential client. Asked me to send invoice and said his accountant told him not to use paypal and square. And after many rounds of text and emails. He insisted me to use Bluepay and rudely asked me to hook it up with my bank account. What a shame. They want business desperately. They would do anything.
This post will help: Best All-Purpose Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
bad business to deal with my company cancel them in 2 months after I was lied to by their salesmen was promised 1% on all credit cards after the first bill I saw was over 4% 26k $1075 and $158 for a equipment their a bunch of lairs and their nothing but frauds don’t have them in your business you will regret if you do
This post will help: Best Automotive Repair Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
I was a customer of BluePay and cancelled my account in June. They continued to bill me for 6 months and even after I called to complain. When I asked for them to also refund fees associated with overdraft fees was told that I had responsibilities for my own account. I have tried to call and speak to a manager and have not been transferred to one nor can I leave a message. As of today still have not received my refund.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying A Fee
All the negative reviews are spot on. I have never dealt with such a devious company. They have hidden fees everywhere that they automatically withdraw from your account without notification. Over 90% of credit and debit cards are “non-qualified,” and thus, bill at a much higher rate. We have been trying to close our account for months, but they make it extremely difficult to do so. I do not know how they stay in business!
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
Joined bluepay and was told would receive a call to explain how to use the card reader. That did not happen. Then a review was initiated on one of the cards accepted. It took 3 + weeks then was called and said the review was complete and then released funds to my account. When asked the total funds released I received the reply “just over $200.00”. Did not know the amount. If you expect money after the transactions are complete, it won’t happen.Bluepay is a joke with your money!!
The worse ! No better than your average scammers ! Choose anyone else or regret it later.
This company was (and still is) a drain on my business. I cancelled over a year ago by using their requested forms, after they repeatedly double billed me. Receipt of those forms was confirmed and they told me I was cancelled, yet over a year later, I’m still getting billed for monthly services, even though I went with a more reputable company over a year ago. Don’t use their services unless you want to pay more, get horrible customer service, and have them keep your money until you remind them they should be putting it in your account.
BluePay provides everything we want and need from our credit card processor. Their competitive pricing, easy-to-use and secure online portal, and exceptional customer service allows us to focus on growing our business rather than the day-to-day administration. I definitely recommend working with BluePay.
Hi Frank,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
Bluepay is the worse company we never had to process online payments. For many months they were charging us double rates and when we complained they reimburse us only 6 months of erroneous charges with the excuse that ‘the system don’t allow us to go beyond 6 months’. Don’t allow this company to handle your business.
Terrible company! Basically stole our 14k dollars… now have to sue to get it. Charged back was over turned and yet they still are holding our money.
Buyer Beware. Support is not available all the time. Alot of false advertising and claims. Support was not available and no-one called and/or wrote back after leaving several messages and by written correspondence through the account web-site.
Our company canceled the Blue Pay account at then end of March 2015. In March 2016 we were charged $99.00. In January, February, and March of 2017 we have been charged $29.95. We informed them that we are no longer a customer as of 2015. I received a call from a rep. that informed me that they never received our letter to discontinue service. She said they will not reverse any charges. She was also wanting me to send yet another letter of cancellation. She was not helpful at all to resolve this issue and blamed all fault on us, the customer. Beware of this company.
Worst customer service. The reps are very rude (I spoke with 3 different reps), not very knowledgeable. I wouldn’t do business with them.
BUYER BEWARE. They are the worst. They are super helpful to get you in and then they are HORRIBLE after that. If you are going to sign, make them remove the three year commitment, I did. They sent me a month to month contract. (I can send anyone who wants it, a copy) That way you can get out of it when you realize how horrible they are.
Stay away from this company. Horrible customer service. End of the day batches do not match up. Lie about contract cancelation. Very deceptive.
—
Are you with BluePay? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
Still waiting on my money. Horrible company to do business with.
This company is the biggest scam ever. I setup a merchant account with them and processed for two days. Then they closed the account saying they cant have it open because its a high risk account? They even froze my money then stated they refunded the money back to my clients and my clients told me they never got the money. So we had to fight them for more then a MONTH to give our clients their money back. They were literally trying to keep it and lie to me telling me they were going to refund it to my clients because we were a scam? Now that they finally did we have a new merchant account and bluepay is calling them making up stories trying to get us shut down and they cant. STAY FAR AWAY FROM THESE GUYS CAUSE THEY ARE NOT A LEGIT MERCHANT SERVICE PROVIDER. IF ANYTHING THEY ARE A SCAM!
BluePay is the WORST! They hooked me in with low rates. Then out of nowhere with no warning – my rate more than doubled, they started charging me for customer service fees and non-compliance fees as well. Then I went to cancel the account and without warning, they charged me $295 for “early termination”. After I was with them for 2 years!!! I’m on the verge of going out of business and $295 is a ton of money!!!!!!
I had three accounts with them. One was immediately attacked with a phising scam they could not mitigate and they told me it was my problem. The I got slammed with almost 600 bucks in cancellation fees for the other accounts.
My sales rep, Phil Latsoff first assured me I was on a month to month deal and I would get those fees refunded. They were not. Both Phil and his boss then refused to answer my calls. Emails bounced. Stay away from these people.
We used this “company” some years back and I see their business practice has not changed. They did not honor the processing fees and rates quoted to us when we signed up. Several things they do we never experienced with another credit card processor.
1.) charged transaction flat fee on failed charges
2.) statement fee monthly
3.) rates constantly varied on not just international charges but on domestic charges, sometimes adding another 3% on what they determined as a “risky” transaction
4.) charges a yearly fee, monthly fee, per transaction flat fee, processing rate fee and cancellation fee
Our major problem with the cancellation fee was when our contract was about to end, we notified them before the end of the term that we was going to cancel so we would not be charged the fee. When the day come, they renewed our contract for another year without authorization and then charged us the cancellation fee. This is not a company to do business with and if you think they are a good processor, just shop around. If you check out just two other companies, they would beat this one hands down.
I’m going to second T.M. with the poor cancellation experience. I was unaware of the $295 cancellation fee buried on page 24 of 26 of the “Program Guide.” And it is absolutely automatically withdrawn from your account. Before the issues dropping Bluepay happened, my main beef was their poor online virtual terminal. It was clunky and outdated. I’ve been much happier since switching to Braintree Payments.
Nightmare experience. Years ago I cancelled my account with BluePay. Yet, they kept billing me. I sent them another letter via fax to cancel my account and thought it was settled. However, they continued to bill me $2.95 for a year and then $27.95 for the past 9 months! The charges were no longer to “BluePay” – they were to “MTOT” and indicated my website address, consequently I thought they were charges for my website. The only reason I caught it was because a charge to “BluePay” showed up again this month. I called to inquire about it and In conversation with their rep discovered MTOT is BluePay and I was told that I’d have to write another letter and fax it to cancel – again. The customer service rep was impossible. Unbelievable. My bank is investigating and I hope to recover the charges.
Theyre still working with first data. I just got a call from the same underwriting guy- JUSTIN…from first data. Don’t let them make you think they’re processing in house…because they AREN’T.
Actually, yes, BluePay is processing in-house. All underwriting, merchant support, technical support, risk, all service of any kind is all through BluePay directly. BluePay is considered a Tier One processor for this reason. However, don’t just take my word for it. Contact FirstData directly and ask any question at all about your merchant acct. They will direct you to the applicable Tier One processor, BluePay. Appx 2 out 3 of all US merchants are somehow relatable to First Data in one way or another. Most of the time it is FirstData that is used as the back-end processor. They generate the statements for BluePay merchants. I should know all of these things, as I’ve been in this business for probably longer than you will encounter with any representative. I’ve been representing these folks since March 1995. It’s a great team of professionals. BTW, I’m an independent rep, able to sell for any company, yet I choose BluePay for my clients.
I asked if there was any commitment and my sales rep told me there was no annual fee. (Not answering my question.) Later, after completing my account, I logged in to see a 3 year commitment. I would NOT recommend them. I also sent my sales rep a follow up e-mail last week about it. He was very responsive before the sale, but now all I hear is crickets…
I have been a customer of Blue Pay for a few years but that is about to end. They recently double charged all of thier clients for thier monthly fees and now my company account is in the negative and I my employee pay checks are bouncing. It has been a week now and they still have not corrected the issue. The have no compassion or sence of urgency to help thier customers after they make a mistake. The acknowledged the error was on thier end but yet they still have not fixed the issue or attmepted to help the hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees that they have created on my account. DONOT USE THIS COMPANY THEY WILL PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!!
I will not recommend this company.
After not receiving the funds in my account after several business days, I contacted them and was told my account was being reviewed further (Not sure why they would do that off the bat) because my business type was considered to be high risk. They asked me to send some information over for their review. I’ve send them 2 month bank statements, Google Checkout statements and etc.Then after two days they sent an email saying they canceled my account.
They’ve told me that it will take 90 – 180 days to release the money.They think they have the license to keep your money.
I’ve contacted BBB and filed a complain.
Stay away from this company.
This has really become a nightmare. I have given them 30 days, ten phone calls, six emails, and three chat sessions to even remotely try and resolve this. Everything went fine opening my account, I used their service to charge my clients for services on three separate dates. After not receiving the funds in my account after several business days, I contacted them and was told my account was being reviewed further (Not sure why they would do that off the bat) because my business type was considered to be high risk for charge backs. They asked me to send some information over for their review. That same night, they sent an email saying they canceled my account. Up to that point it would certainly be frustrating and a bad experience that they would open the account and then close it in a week. But I have learned being in the travel business, it is considered high risk with merchants and that seems acceptable. What I find completely unacceptable and basically illegal is they have held the money for themselves, they have not released the charged funds to me (which I could understand since they chose to close the account), but despite all of the email requests and phone calls, they are refusing to refund my customers for six months. They claim it is for chargebacks, but again, I am asking them to refund my clients which would eliminate any need for the worry of chargebacks. So far for 30 days, they have not released the funds to my company and they have not credited back my customers and I have been flooded with calls and emails saying they still see charges on their account and I am completely at their mercy. The damage done to the reputation of my business has now reached a very serious level. From what I can see, they seem to think they have a license to take your money. I would seriously use a great deal of caution when considering using BluePay for your processing needs.
if you consider them, plan on a gettign deceitful sales pitch with outright lies. I was told my fees would be 1.1 – 1.6%. They ended up being 3.4% due to their misc other fees. I am now locked in for 3 years or 295 term fee (both of which i knew nothign about) Some fees are outright ridiculous like a $15.00 month statement fee.
I would NEVER recomend them
BluePay and their subsidiary BuyPass failed to process my POS batches for 10 days, without notice. Then they double charged the missed transactions, and took a week to resolve the issue. We fielded a hundred complaints from customers, and suffered loss of revenue and reputation. BluePay’s staff were utterly unhelpful and their manager responded with a dozen diversionary tactics to my written requests for documentation to prove their assertion that they were not at fault. They were, and I can prove it. They refused to refund my $129 yearly fee paid less than 60 days prior, though I was on the hook for hundreds of dollars from multiple interest charges and late fees for the insufficient funds charges incurred due to their error. Be warned: BuyPass has glitches in their software’s ability to read files, and none of their staff know why or how to resolve it. BluePay uses BuyPass to process files from merchants.
Bill, if BluePay was only founded 10 years ago in 2003, how were you with them for 18 years as of 2013?
Was BluePay formed out of a previously existing company?
I have been with the folks of BluePay for nearly 18 years and strongly recommend them to any merchant. I have nothing but positive things to say about the company & their staff.
Sincerely,
Bill Schlunz
Hi Bill,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to verify your testimonial. Thanks!
Sorry for the long delay in my response. I did not realize that your post was made, as I haven’t been on this site since I first came across it two years ago. The reason I logged in here today was in response to an email that I received, notifying me that someone just posted a question for me (from “Jabalong”). I will respond to that post in this writing as well.
I started with John Rante, Kristen Gramigna, Nicole Pallela, Allen Caviles on Mar.21, 1995. John is the CEO, while the others are chief officers of BluePay, Inc. Suffice it to say that in a sense, just the name has changed over time, but it’s basically the same company & run by these same folks.
I was an employee (as well as one of the owners for a period of time) until 1/1/2004, when I went off on my own as an independent agent. I am a very loyal person and send all of my business to BluePay, John and the others listed above have been very good to me.
One of John’s methods of building companies is to make the employees (especially the key people) shareholders & stock option holders. This has proven enormously effective, as his businesses have been extremely successful. Employees are extremely loyal & & care a great deal about the success, reputation, quality & fate of the company.
I have signed up literally thousands of merchants over my two decade tenure and can honestly say that I care quite a bit about these people and their businesses. I am extremely committed to excellent service. Many of my clients have been with me for years & years, and I am very appreciative of their choice of processors & agents. I provide very, very competitive pricing. Along the same vein, BluePay delivers excellent service and its employees care a great deal about servicing our merchants with the best care.
Please feel free to contact me with any other questions. Of course, if anyone is interested in a high quality agent with top notch service and pricing, please contact me.
Thank you
[Contact information redacted. Promotional content not allowed]
P.S. My website ([Redacted]) is currently under construction, as Visa has some strict compliance rules for agents in this industry.
P.P.S. sorry this post is so lengthy. Sometimes I get a little carried away when writing — especially when it’s about something I’m very passionate about.
Stay away from this group. I signed up and every time I went to login to do a transaction they couldn’t find my account. I’d have to call my rep who would login for me. But that was only when they would answer the phone. For over 6 montyhs they didn’t answer their phones nor return messages. This was a bad experience for me but an easy one for them. They kept removing their fees from my account every month. I feel like was swindled because I literally got nothig from them, and when I tried to get help – they weren’t there.
Make sure you get everything in writing. My first few bills showed incorrect rates and fees, and I was able to reduce some of them simply because I had kept all e-mail conversations with the sales rep. Unfortunately, the verbal “promises” were not honored because I was not able to prove the quoted pricing. Rates and fees are increased at their discretion and hidden in the lengthy wording on the first page of every month’s bill. Then it states that “Continuing your merchant account with us or use of your merchant account after 30 days will represent your acceptance to these terms.” As if you had a choice since you’re locked into the agreeement?
Bluepay has recently shut down each of their regional offices. (Phoenix, Hartford, Atlanta)